Now a lot of folks in Blaine talk about the mighty “H-Street Hill.” The more knowledgeable will see your H-Street and raise you a Harvey Hill. Steeper angle, that rock sticking up half way down, bone jarring crashes, Harvey Hill was a beast. But for me, it was Brickyard Hill in front of Dick and Laura’s house. It was just the right distance and pitch. It was my Brickyard 500. Kids made coasters and went kapootin down the hill.
We had this huge garage left over from Ken and Dad’s repair shop business. It had no organization. Even for me it was bad. Tools were strewn along the bench. There was a beat up table saw and a Craftsman floor model drill. Heavy drawers were filled with all manner of things some of which would be needed in the future, most not. It was in a word, perfect.
Now here I need to tell you, the Walsh kids were allowed to hurt themselves. Because of that I learned that when using the drill if you had too big a bit and didn’t clamp down the wood, you’d get hurt. I got hurt. I learned. From then on the wood was always clamped, to this day. You learn to figure out where the danger is without being told. That table saw looked dangerous. I was careful.
It was in this garage that I created my coasters. They were based on a 2’ x 4’ piece of plywood. I decided to create my masterpiece. I set about the task.
I had dad help me rip the plywood and set to work with the sandpaper, smoothing the edges of the board. Next you needed to add the rear axel. I had two short pieces of rod I found over at the Packers. I cut a two by four long enough to span the back of the coaster. I lay the rod on the side, extending out far enough to accept the lawn mower tires I had salvaged. Lots of those fence staples holding it down. Next I added the tires and slipped a nail through the hole I’d carefully clamped and drilled in the axel. Then I mixed up some wood glue and nailed and glued the two by four to the plywood.
Next came the steering. This required figuring stuff out. Measure to the center, put a pencil mark use the all metal Craftsman drill that shocked you most of the time. Then came the longer two by four with holes drilled into the end for the rope steering. I was lucky, I had an axel rod that was one piece and it was just the right length.
The steering axel as attached to the coaster with a 3/8” bolt. Big fender washers gave some clearance between the axel and plywood.I put a little grease on top of the two by four in case it touched. My version of power steering.
Now the best part, making it beautiful. I painted the wood a dark blue. I painted it dark blue again. and it looked smooth and slippery. Then I got creative with a rattle can of silver paint. Solid in the front fading into the blue. Pretty snazzy.
It was ready, I was ready. It was a sunny fall Saturday morning. I grabbed ahold of that steering rope and headed out. It was a bit of a hike from our house, but I knew I could manage it. My journeys always seem to take awhile ‘cause there are so many interesting things along the way.
I finally arrived at Brickyard Hill only to discover another kid with his home made coaster. We looked at each other. We admired each other’s home made coaster. His was pink, like the Hawaii Kai hydro.
He looked at me.
“Standing start or push?”
“Push”
We both line up our racers and bent over the back, steering rope in one hand.
“Go”
We pushed, we ran, we jumped on. He went whooshing down the hill.
*Deep sigh”
The two short axels at the back of my coaster now pointed skyward and the back of my coaster rested on the cement. The fence staples I’d used were not strong enough to hold to hold the short axels. A design failure. Worse, I was the designer. My design had failed.
I held onto the steering rope and pushed my racer home like a wheel barrow. The trip home seemed quite a bit longer than the trip to the hill. But eventually I got there and leaned my racer against the wall.
They call them adventures because you don’t know when you start how they are going to end. My adventures were not always epic, although a few were. And occasionally they failed, like the broken axels. But thats how you learn.